Safe Speed Forums

In today's Southampton Echo there is a tongue-in-cheek letter regarding the local council saying that paper shredded for security reasons should not be put in recycling bins as no processing method is available for it.

The writer says (paraphrasing): If I put a sheet of A4 in my recycle bin this is OK. If I tear it in half, is this OK to recycle? If I tear it in quarters is this OK? Where is the limit where recycling becomes impossible? Is this whole argument dumb?

Another wag has written that if he makes papier mache from shreddings is this recyclable?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

I would guess that it all hinges on the processing of the paper when it is collected. Some collections go to fully mechanical automated recycling facilities that use screens and the like to separate different materials/grades of paper or cardboard. Others go to the more simpler hand picked sites where humans do the work.

I would suggest that shredded paper would clog up the screens of the automated facilities and make the sorting procedure far more difficult (different grades of paper being mixed up in the shredders, that kind of thing) the handpickers would probably fair better though. Either way, both facilities can deal with a certain amount of "foreign" material, but I would envisage the less the better.

The A4 sheet analogy is probably a bit unecessary because unless people are doing this to the majority of their recycling, it isn't going to cause big problems at the processing point.

Another reason why shredded paper "cannot" be recycled as paper is that by shredding it you shorten the fibres to the point where it cannot make a recycled paper of any decent quality. It is very good however as a composting medium where it absorbs the excess moisture from green matter such as grass cuttings. Therefore almost everybody that does recycling insists that shredded paper is green waste and not paper.

Our shredded paper either goes into the compost, or is used for starting fires (in our open fireplace obviously).

You have to remember that the recycling offered by the council is contracted out to a 3rd party company. That company is a private company trying to make a profit and please its shareholders. You will find that the list of what you can recycle matches very well with a list of what materials are profitable to recycle.

Exactly - the value of the low quality paper that is the result of shredding is virtually nothing. It can't even be used to make toilet paper. So it isn't worth even the energy required to process it - hence the "green" thing to do is to compost it.

Nope, the "green" thing to do would be to use it as hamster bedding, then compost it!

Hamsters don't need much bedding, I use mine for Rabbits

Our lot took my last lot of shredded paper - but then again they leave things like tin lids and the metal lids on glass jars (they take jar,leave lid)- can't think why.